When I was doing research for my trip to Calabria, photos of Scilla and Chianalea kept popping up and I was captivated by their beauty. I mentioned this to my fellow passenger, Michael, during the train ride to Crotone. He encouraged me to visit. I had each day of my trip planned, but on my last day in Reggio Calabria I took the train to Scilla on the spur of the moment. It was a good decision.
In Greek mythology a fisherman named Glaucos became enamored with Scylla, a beautiful sea nymph. He asked the witch, Circe, for a potion to make Scylla love him. Circe fell in love with Glaucos, but he cared only for Scylla, and so she made a potion that changed Scylla into a monster with six heads and twelve feet, her waist surrounded with the heads of baying dogs. Angry and tormented, Scylla made her lair on a rock across from the whirlpool of Charybdis. In ancient times it was a treacherous passage through the Strait of Messina for oarsmen rowing open triremes. If the monster Scylla didn’t eat the crew, they’d drown in the whirling eddies of Charybdis. The sayings “between a rock and a hard place” and “between the devil and the deep blue sea” derive from this challenging adventure.
Nowadays Scilla is a favorite place for sun worshippers. It has a white sand beach with a stony shore. I walked the length of the beach. Life settles for me when I walk on a beach. Thoughts become still and I’m calmed by the lapping of the sea on the shore, the warmth of the sun on my skin, the cooling sea breeze, and the beauty created by nature and man that fills my eyes.
I walked through the tunnel that runs across the great stone formation that once was Scylla’s lair. Now there is a Grotto for the Blessed Mother Mary carved in the stone wall. I came out in Chianalea.
Chianalea is a fishing community. The bay is filled with traditional fishing boats, but I saw several large trawlers coming in from sea. The local economy is from fishing and tourism. Chianalea is a picturesque borgo with little restaurants perched on the Tyrrhenian Sea. After a tasty lunch on the deck of Il Pirata I took the long walk back through Cheanalea and along Scilla’s lungomare to the train station. I enjoyed the ride back to Reggio Calabria in the lively company of three Argentinian women and an elderly couple from Reggio.
The Write Mind of a Lefthander 